Global Day of Prayer for Burma

2016

Photos, clockwise from top left: A church mortared by the Burma Army in Kachin State; Aung San Suu Kyi; memorial service for 22 cadets killed in Burma Army shelling; Shan GLC counselor with Kachin IDP children COMPELLED BY HIS LOVE Dear friends, Thank you for all of your prayers, encouragement and support. The elections held in Burma are a good step; many people could vote, the National League for Democracy won and Aung San Suu Kyi is helping to form a new government. There is hope that this will lead to more steps towards freedom, justice and reconciliation in Burma. However, many people in the conflict areas could not vote and the military still has ultimate power; the military also controls an automatic 25% of the seats in Parliament due to the constitution put in place by the dictatorship in 2008. Attacks continue against the Kachin, Shan and Ta’ang in A Yazidi girl who escaped ISIS. Her northern Burma and, even in ceasefire areas, the Burma friends and family did not. Army has not withdrawn its forces. In western Burma over 100,000 of the Rohingya minority live in concentration grow, being willing to give freedom to ethnic groups within camps. We pray that the way of love and truth prevails for a regional partnership and leaving the door open for mercy all. We also pray for, stand with and help those left out of and way out for the guilty. this process and those under attack and oppression. We stand against oppressors, be they in Burma, Kurdistan, In the midst of this, relief teams from Burma feel the call or Sudan, and we’re also praying for the oppressors—and of God to go help people under attack in Kurdistan, Sudan asking God for love for them. No one is beyond redemption: and other places in the world- even though Burma is not In Burma a regime soldier who once murdered villagers yet free. We see the power of God in this and, as in Burma, joined our team to help the same people he once attacked. we go compelled by His love to give help, hope and love Fighting evil and grounding our actions in love are practical in Jesus name. In Burma, Kurdistan and everywhere we ways towards defeating evil and uniting for a new way witness suffering, we feel motivated by the question: If our forward. Psalm 77:19 says what we feel about how God family was in this situation, what would we do? And then, leads us, “Your way was through the sea, your path through just as importantly, how do we do it in justice and with the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen.” Thank love? We work to set the oppressed free, to share love and you for going and praying with us. mercy and open a way for change. The first part means that we, the international community, immediately conduct all God bless you, actions needed to set people free. The second part means we respect ethnic and religious tensions and acknowledge the concerns of each nation. It means admitting wrongs, David Eubank correcting the injustices that form the soil out of which Christians Concerned for Burma/ Free Burma Rangers oppressors such as the Burma Army and groups like ISIS

This year, the Global Day of Prayer will be on 13 March 2016. Throughout this publication you’ll see these and other colored bars containing requests relating to the news and stories. Please take a moment to stop and pray along with us as you read through. 2 Global Day of Prayer for Burma Comforting those who are suffering: Relief team videographer talks to Lahpai Nang Bang. When the Burma Army came to her village in Kachin State, she refused to run away, along with six others. She became the only witness to their torture and execution. She says, “Since 1967 we have been in difficult times. Then I had to live in the jungle with only bamboo shoots to eat. I am grateful to be alive. Even though it is bad and I feel lost now also, I thank God that he has always given me life.” (Photo: Chris Sinclair) TABLE OF CONTENTS Praying for the Sudden Death: There International 4 Impossible 13 are No Winners 20 Missions: Breaking By: Zipporah Sein By: Fran Derocher Forth Like the Dawn

Nationwide Ceasefire Medical Updates: Interpreters or 5 Agreement: A Small 14 Bringing Healing/ 22 Translators? Step Forward? Training Healers By: Paul Bradley By: Dr. Ashley South Ethnic Area Updates Good Life Club What are we fighting 6 and Reports from the 16 Report: Finding 23 for?/Who are we Field Freedom living for? By: Karen Eubank & By: Hosannah Valentine Hosannah Valentine A Sanctuary in the The Story of BA: A Next Steps: A Way to 10 Storm: The Passing of 18 Ranger Filled with 24 Pray Dr. Simon Passion for God and His People By: Amber Pleasant 3 PRAYING FOR THE IMPOSSIBLE Zipporah shares two stories of tested faith where God showed that “in any circumstances, He can do things for His glory.” By: Zipporah Sein Vice-Chairperson of the KNU By then I was I would like to bear witness to God’s miracle to the teaching at the Karen people. In 1975, in Nyaung Lin Bin District, high school there. Mon Township, there was fighting between the Karen Our schools closed as the male students and some male National Liberation Army and Burmese troops. Our teachers helped carry food to the front line and female troops were surrounded by the Burmese, hiding in the teachers and students cooked and prepared food in the forest and between the mountains. At that time I was back. I remember the day in February, when the Burma a student at Kawthoolei High School; I remember the Army first used fighter jets. We heard them come and head of the school came and said, “We need to pray for could hear when they fired - and the explosion seemed our soldiers.” The school was Kindergarten to Grade 10 to come at the same time. This struck fear into us: these and we all assembled in the assembly hall and prayed. new missiles seemed to travel faster than their sound. About a week later, we received We got the message that they would the news that the five fighter planes “I spoke to God directly. return at 2 p.m., after reloading. I was coming to reinforce the attack at my mother’s house, so worried for on our troops had arrived in bad I asked God, ‘Can you my soldiers and students. I walked up weather, crashed into the side of a hill, looked around the mountains, the mountain and gone down, do the same miracle around Manerplaw. I spoke to God giving our people a reprieve. This you did before?’” directly. I asked God, “Can you do was a miracle for us, and showed the same miracle you did before?” me what God can do. God would I answered for him: “You cannot prove He is the same from the beginning and up to do it, there are no high mountains here.” I had many now. questions for God and for myself and then I resigned In February of 1992, the Burmese troops had myself. I was sure that God could not do what He had launched what they called “Operation Dragon King,” done before. to overthrow the headquarters of the KNU and take We waited and prepared for the plane to return, but control of the various immigration checkpoints 2 p.m. came, and no plane. Then, 3 p.m., 5 p.m. – no through which the KNU controlled their borders sound of planes and I felt relieved for today, but still and earned revenue. These were also the only routes worried for the next day. Later in the evening the journalists could use to get into the country, as the news broadcast announced that this flight had crashed central government did not allow them at all. The along with four other fighter planes after taking off at attack started in January with heavy shelling. Their aim Mingaladon. Since then, no more planes had come. was to overthrow Manerplaw, the KNU headquarters God showed me what He can do. In any and center of the pro-democracy resistance, by March circumstances He can do things for His glory. Every 27, Revolution Day. time I feel doubt about the situation, this story reminds me what God can do.

Pray for protection of school children and teachers, for both opportunity and perseverance as they build together the future of their country. 4 Global Day of Prayer for Burma NATIONWIDE CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT: A SMALL STEP FORWARD? By: Dr. Ashley South everyone in Burma sees things this way. Thus it is possible that EAOs have already gone past On 15 October in Naypyidaw leaders of eight Ethnic their point of greatest influence and leverage, with the Armed Organisations (EAOs) signed a Nationwide NCA representing a closing window of opportunity to Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) with the government and capitalise on the prime interlocutor status they have been Army. After more than 60 years of armed accorded by the present military-backed government. A conflict and violent suppression, it was extraordinary future government will probably press the reset button to see the President and Commander-in-Chief on the peace process. Any future structured process of acknowledge the (KNU) as a national reconciliation in Burma is likely to be framed by legitimate political organisation. Nevertheless, after two the outcome of the elections and parliamentary politics, years of negotiations, the NCA remains problematic - as with EAOs invited to participate as just one among a set indicated by the decision of some 10 EAOs not to attend of stakeholders. Agreeing to the present NCA does not the event. preclude the EAOs attempting to negotiate a better deal Some of these problems include ongoing concerns next year, but from what is likely to be a more marginal about increased natural resource extraction and land- position. grabbing, and in other parts of the country the Myanmar The NCA acknowledges EAO authority in the fields Army continues to attack civilians and EAOs which did of education, health, natural resource management and not sign the NCA. Such attacks seriously undermined security, and provides for international assistance in the credibility of the peace process. these fields, with the joint agreement of government This process has been a unique opportunity as, for the and EAOs. Many of the key issues need to be discussed first time since independence, leaders of Burma’s long as part of a structured multi-stakeholder debate, either and violently suppressed ethnic nationality communities coming out of the peace process or in relation to broader have been able to articulate their grievances and post-election political reforms. In the meantime, there aspirations on the national political stage. After the 8 is a need to support EAO provision of education and November elections, with attention focused on issues of other services, during the ‘interim period’ between the representative democracy, the ethnic question may slip NCA agreement (and earlier bilateral ceasefires) and back to the sidelines as the next government will have negotiation of a comprehensive political settlement. many contentious and difficult issues to address. While One of the key issues is the status and future of EAOs’ it is a flawed document, the NCA is a step forward on governance regimes, and service delivery systems, what is likely to be a difficult road to a comprehensive which are often implemented in partnership with civil settlement of Burma’s protracted state-society conflicts. society actors. Will education and other services under Also, the NCA as it is still faces obstacles: it needs to the authority of EAOs be displaced by the state system, be ratified by Parliament, and, while political dialogue is continue in parallel with the government system, or supposed to begin within 90 days of signing, it remains undergo a process of ‘convergence’? Ethnic stakeholders unclear whether substantial political discussions can are concerned that international aid agencies and donors begin during a period when key stakeholders will be are inadvertently supporting government strategy and negotiating the make-up of the next government. Even in practice of pushing state structures into conflict-affected the current discussions, key actors are ambivalent at best. areas, without taking account of existing local activities For example, while the National League for Democracy and services, or the impacts on peace and conflict may be willing to talk about dialogue, its leading dynamics. members have limited respect for most EAOs, tending to regard legitimacy as a product of parliamentary Dr. Ashley South is an independent analyst and consultant, process rather than armed struggle. While the country’s specialising in humanitarian, peace and conflict, and ethnic better-established EAOs may enjoy significant legitimacy political issues in Burma/Myanmar. within the communities they seek to represent, not Pray for the ongoing, complicated peace process, for the continuing ceasefire negotiations, and for the new government. 5 Major Flooding Ceasefire and Conflict: Eight Ethnic Armed Organizations (EAOs) signed the Hits Western National Ceasefire Agreement on 15 October 2015, yet Burma fighting continues.

Over 1 million people in Burma Large Con ict Area were affected by massive flooding in July and August 2015. Over Small Con ict Area Rakhine-Rohingya 100 people died due to flooding, Interethnic Con ict with the highest number of deaths National Ceasere occurring in State, where Agreement Signatories more than 463 villages were submerged. Thousands across the nation are displaced because their homes were damaged or washed away. Schools were also destroyed. The year’s rainy season saw unusually high rainfall, exacerbated by Cyclone Komen sweeping through the region in mid- July. Flashfloods and landslides destroyed roads, fields and buildings – especially in rural villages with limited infrastructure. The ability to get aid to the region was severely diminished, as road access was cut off or limited due to high waters and landslides, for months after the worst of the rains ceased. The aftermath of the floods not only hampered the delivery of aid, but communication as well. Electrical infrastructure in the country was already weak, and telecommunications abilities were greatly diminished. It is expected that needs will be ongoing throughout the year in the flood-affected areas, given the major damage to fields and subsequent loss of work for agricultural laborers, as well as the loss of the rice harvest.

Abbreviations Explained CNF - Chin National Front SSA-S/RCSS - South/ Restoration Council of Shan State PNLO - Pa-Oh National Liberation Organization ABSDF - All Burma Student Democratic Front KNU- Karen National Union DKBA- Democratic Karen Benevolent Army A relief team member carries KNLA-PC - Karen National Liberation Army-Peace Council supplies through flood waters. ALP - Arakan Liberation Party 6 Global Day of Prayer for Burma NAGA UPDATE ​The Sagaing Division, where the Naga people primarily live, has seen an upswing in development since the ethnic negotiations began several years ago, improving the situation of healthcare and education. The Naga were hit hard by the flooding of 2015, resulting in the destruction of many homes and the loss of crops. It is predicted that there will be a food shortage in the coming year.

At Right: Naga villagers on the move. LAHU UPDATE PA-OH UPDATE ​The Lahu people live in Shan State in the area controlled by the Wa, ​The Pa-Oh are located in who have had a special agreement with the Burma Army since 1989. the Shan State of Burma. They are thus stuck between the two most powerful militaries in The primary political groups Burma: the Burma Army and the Wa State Army. While they live in representing the people have fear of the Wa, the central government looks on them as part of the signed ceasefires with the Wa operation, so they have no independent dealings with the Burma government​ and as a result are Army and are considered non-signatories to the most recent ceasefire able to travel more freely. The agreement. While the Wa have some clinics, the Lahu are afraid to use education situation has also them. The Wa area has historically been a major producer of opium recently improved, as the civil and other drugs and addiction is a major problem in the Lahu areas. society capacity has increased Only the most basic schooling is available. Major health issues are drug to the point that the Pa-Oh can addiction, anemia, and dysentery. build schools and hire teachers. However there is still conflict between the Pa-Oh and local divisions of the Shan State Army. Until the situation settles down, the Pa-Oh are unwilling to invest in significant infrastructures such as clinics. Healthcare is primarily limited to mobile clinics. Lahu GLC leader and children at a GLC program in a Lahu village.

CHIN UPDATE The Chin are among the poorest in an already overwhelmingly impoverished nation. Their educational and healthcare infrastructure have long suffered, and the floods of this year did nothing to improve that situation. Not only have most of the crops for this year’s harvest been destroyed, but the Chin are also struggling to maintain access to clean water. Some larger humanitarian organizations have moved into the area to provide medical care and relief, which has helped alleviate one important A Chin relief team member provides need in the region. medical care in Chin State.

7 REPORTS FROM THE FIELD: KACHIN STATE

Civilians Murdered and Army’s 27th Battalion area. People from across the area fled from the advance, including residents Widespread Use of Air Strikes from Du Hku Village, 1.27 kilometres from Mahtek. Despite High Level Meetings These people sought refuge in the jungle and 1 April 2015, Kachin and northern Shan hoped to avoid the Burma Army. Amongst the refugees were 52-year-old Dau Ma La and his States, Burma 103-year-old mother, Da Shi Hka. Grabbing a Despite recent meetings between senior few possessions, they ran into the jungle and hid. representatives of the Kachin Independence At 11:00AM Dau Ma La and Da Shi Hka were Organization (KIO), President Thein Sein, and discovered by Burma Army troops under the Burma Army military head Min Aung Hlaing, to command of Commander Ye Win Lwin and were discuss a potential ceasefire agreement, incidents shot to death. The soldiers then looted over two of aggression by the Burma Army have increased million kyats from the son and mother before to levels not seen since initial fighting began in leaving. Dau Ma La’s son, Maru Naw Grawng 2011. On 21 March 2015, at 10:30AM, Burma Army (19 years old) and daughter-in-law Hkai Htu (18 troops from Light Infantry Battalions 317 and 415 years old) fled to Mung Hkawng Village, Mansi of the 88th Division came to attack Mahtek Village, Township, Kachin State. Mansi Township, in the Kachin Independence

Relief Team Member Injured By Burma Army Mortar Fire 23 May 2015, Kachin State, Burma A relief team cameraman has been injured by shrapnel while documenting ongoing fighting in Kachin State, Northern Burma. On 10 May, mortar and machine gun fire between Burma Army and (KIA) troops was exchanged over several hours at the head of Nam Lim Pa Village, Mansi Township, in the KIA’s 3rd Brigade district. During the fighting a senior cameramen was hit in the arm by shrapnel when a Burma Army 60mm shell dropped 7 meters from his position. Though the wound was deep and the cameraman sustained serious blood loss, prompt treatment from the KIA medics meant that he has already been able to return to duty. Nam Lim Pa has seen heavy fighting in the last month. On the 18th and 19th of May alone clashes continued for many hours and on the 20th Burma Airforce jets attacked KIA positions on multiple occasions. Top Photo: The body of Dau Ma La who was shot by the Burma Army while hiding in the jungle. Bottom Photo: A relief team member receives medical aid to treat his shrapnel injury.

8 Global Day of Prayer for Burma REMEMBERING: MARAN LA RU and TANGBAU HKAWN NAN TSIN Missionaries, killed by Burma Army soldiers 19 January 2015

Dear friends, displacement continue. Attacks are especially We have tragic information to pass on. Two intense in the Hpakant area of northern Kachin Kachin girls were raped and killed on 19 January State where hundreds are now trapped by the 2015 by troops of the Burma Army. The girls were Burma Army. named Maran Lu Ra, age 20, and Tangbau Hkawn Here with us are Kachin, Shan, Ta’ang, Arakan, Nan Tsin, age 21. They were from Myitkyina and Karen and Karenni teams, all working together to sent by the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) as give help, hope and love to those in need. volunteer missionaries to teach about God’s love At the beginning of this mission we all joined in to the people in Northern Burma along the Shweli a prayer service for River and the two of our relief Kachin State-Shan team members who State border. The were killed two KBC church sends months ago by the volunteers two by Burma Army. From two every year into there we went to two areas of need such as camps for displaced this area. people and gave The rape occurred medical and dental in the KBC church treatment and Good compound in Kawng Life Club programs. Hka Village, Nam With your help we Tao Township, Muse are able to give some District, Northern funds to help repair Shan State. On the a church damaged night of 19 January, Burma Army troops came into by the Burma Army here. the church ground where the girls were sleeping, We feel angry and sad. We know we too are raped them and then beat them to death. sinners, we know not all Burma soldiers rape, but Villagers nearby heard the girls screaming and we also know that rape, murder and displacement when they went to check they saw Burma Army are wrong and we stand against these, and for boot prints and then the bloodied bodies of the justice, truth and love in Jesus’ name. Thank you for girls. The 503rd Light Infantry Battalion under praying for the families of those killed and for all MOC 1 commands, occupies and controls this area. here. The church members went to the Burma police in the area but the police have taken no action. God bless you, Thank you for your help and prayers. We are David Eubank, family and teams sending this out from Kachin State, Northern 22 January 2015 Burma, where rape, murder, attacks and Pray for the hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Kachin State, that they could be free from fear and free to return home. 9 A Sanctuary in the Storm: The passing of Dr. Simon Karen State, Burma 3 August 2015 Photo: Saw Pokay 10 Global Day of Prayer for Burma 5 August 2015 Dear friends, family and teammates, We are sad to pass on the news that Rev. Dr. Saw Simon a Karen refugee leader, pastor and founder of Mae La Bible School, has passed away. He is now in Heaven with Jesus and though we are sad for all of us who miss him, we are happy for him. One story exemplifies for me Dr. Simon’s accomplishments: I was with refugees fleeing the Burma Army and helping them carry their belongings to the Moei River that marks the Burma-Thai border. We crossed before the Burma soldiers could catch us and then walked to the sanctuary of Mae La refugee camp. Once in the safety of the camp everyone was fed and cared for. Later that night, outside the Bible school, I looked up at the starry sky, with the cliffs of Mae La on one side and the refugees’ huts spread out below and the beautiful songs of Dr. Simon’s choir floating through the air. I felt total peace and gratitude to be in such a sanctuary of beauty and goodness. We could all relax and sleep. I thought, “This is what refugees feel when they escape out from the hands of the attacking Burma Army. They find a place of safety, of shelter, of provision, of rest. And because of Dr. Simon, they also find a sanctuary of love, peace and opportunity.”

David Eubank Christians Concerned for Burma/ Free Burma Rangers

r. Simon opens his own telling of his story by Simon was able to pursue his education through telling his name: “‘They called me Simon,’ is all the unrest in Burma in those days, ultimately what I used to answer when friends asked: going to the Philippines to pursue his doctorate at DWhat’s your name?”– as if he held his name as lightly the Asia Baptist Graduate Theological Seminary. and temporally as he held the things of earth, ready While he was there he witnessed the People’s Power to change it at any time to meet someone else’s need. Revolution in which the people overthrew Ferdinand Born on the day that Burma’s independence hero, Marcos through mass protests and civil disobedience. Aung San, was killed, in the year the Karen mark as He returned to Burma and a post teaching at the the beginning of their struggle for freedom, Simon’s Myanmar Institute of Theology, known as MIT, life was set in conflict and turmoil from the begin- just in time to witness Burma’s own people’s power ning. Yet his young years were stable: both of his par- movement, known as the 8-8-88 uprising, which ents had been professionals, his father as a police offi- launched Aung San Suu Kyi to the forefront of the cer and his mother a teacher, but when they married Burma democracy movement, and resulted in a and began their family they became farmers. He was harsher clamping down by a new military regime. able to attend school and when his parents couldn’t The streets of Rangoon became the front in the afford to send him to secondary school, they gave him people’s confrontation with their brutal government, the freedom to leave the village and study on his own. and protesting students were at the forefront of But before he left, he describes a dream God gave the demonstrations. All schools, universities and him. “I dreamed for three consecutive nights: it was seminaries were shut down. Dr. Simon said, “Through March 1963, one year after Gen. led a military this upheaval, I had no worry and no fear.” But he did coup and took the power from U Nu, the then prime have a major change of direction. As the government minister of Burma, and established military rule in clamped down on the urban pro-democracy Burma. But in my dream I was flying in the air, over demonstrators, it also ramped up its war on the rural the seas, over the mountains, and over the valleys, like ethnic resistance groups fighting for freedom in their a superman, free of worry and fear. Look at how God home states. Dr. Simon decided it was time to leave fulfilled my dream.” the city and join his suffering people in the jungle 11 From left to right: Paw Paw Mu Htoo Simon, Rev. Dr. Rev. Dr. Saw Simon with his wife, Thramu Ta Blut Htoo. Saw Simon, Hsar Ka Nyaw Htoo Simon, Thramu Ta Photo: Saw EhEh Blut Htoo, and Thaw Thaw Mu Htoo Simon. of his homeland, Kawthoolei – Karen State. He had land called Kawthoolei and rebuild our life and live married Naw Ta Blut Htoo, the daughter of Johnny and serve the Lord as human beings created in God’s Htoo. Johnny Htoo was first known as “Brigadier” for own image. At our KKBC election for the new term his part in fighting the Japanese during World War of service, we have chosen the theme or motto for II and later known as “Reverend Johnny” when he our KKBC and it was done by a leader chosen to pray became a respected pastor and evangelist. Together, for and draw the lot to choose the new motto. All the Dr. Simon, his wife and family, and his in-laws moved proposed mottos (seven in all) were written each on a to the jungle home of their people. They went first piece of paper and rolled and put in a box and Thramu to the Karen National Union headquarters in Ma Htoo Lei was chosen to pray for and draw the lot for Ner Plaw, but Reverend Johnny asked to go to Wallei the new motto. She prayed and drew the lot and the where he was originally from; General Bo Mya agreed new motto was Nehemiah 3: ‘With their hands they and on the family train went, arriving at the end of rebuild.’ I praised and thanked the Lord for answering June 1989. Dr. Simon was immediately asked to help my prayer. It was the one I had chosen as it is my teach at the Kawthoolei Karen Baptist Bible School strong desire and wish that another 21 years of my life, and College (KKBBSC) and the following year, at the will see our people returning home and rebuilding regional Baptist meeting, he was our life in our own Land of elected the principal. On their way “Carry each other’s burdens Kawthoolei. God in His Holy back from the meeting, in March and in this way you will fulfill Word, said, ‘To everything there is 1990, Wallei was attacked by the a season, a time for every purpose Burma Army and evacuated. Dr. the law of Christ.” under heaven’ (Ecclesiastes 3:1). I Simon says, “I thus became the Galatians 6:2 am sure that all of us, the people newly-elected principal of the of Burma, and people all over the KKBBSC without school buildings world will agree that what the and teachers and students.” And this was only the world needs is love, healing, building up one another, beginning. They eventually resettled the school in and peace. Let us all join our hands together and try Mae La refugee camp near Mae Sot, Thailand, but the best we can and with our own hands rebuild the it was later attacked again by the Democratic Karen world to make it a better, and a meaningful place for Buddhist Army (DKBA). In 1996 there was a major living. Thank you all so much and God bless you all.” flood that wiped out several buildings. And in 2012 In early 2015, Dr. Simon was diagnosed with liver a fire turned to ashes most of the buildings of the cancer and he died on August 2, 2015, while en school. Yet as he looked back at these events, Simon route from Chiang Mai, where he had been receiving saw only the fulfillment of his dream, saying: “There treatment, to his home at the Bible school. were lots of difficulties and hardships but God enabled The following two verses are how he chose to end his me to fly over all of them.” written testimony, and were the inspiration of his life: In 2010 Dr. Simon wrote the following words: “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will “Though we are still living and serving the Lord in the fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2); “Let us not camps, I am strongly convinced that another set of grow weary while doing good, for in due season we 21 years of my life (2010 to 2030) the Lord will open shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9). the door and enable us to return to our own beautiful 12 Global Day of Prayer for Burma SUDDEN DEATH: THERE ARE NO WINNERS By: Fran Derocher, way to the final destination - likely camps set up Partners Relief & Development by human traffickers with little concern for those in their care. The son became ill along the way and Sports fanatics know the meaning of those two passed away as he crossed in to what was going to words - sudden death. It is an odd use of the be a new country and a new life for him. words for a sports match. The intent of course is to Passing around his son’s autopsy photos I was continue the game until a winner emerges. stunned by how ‘matter of fact’ it was. It was only This story has no winner. We were traveling to a two weeks since the news had arrived. I have read small village in Western Burma to follow up on a and watched news specials on the TV about all the number of families who had been displaced from a human trafficking that is taking place. Those stories refugee camp because they were followers of Christ. were shocking and it’s difficult to understand how Our guide to the village was a man who knew the fellow human beings can be so heartless. I was now area well. He shared that the home we were going in the same small, dark and very hot room listening to visit was the home of a father who recently lost as a father shared his story. These are stories that are his son. The story shared by this father is one that seldom heard outside the walls, village or country. many refugee parents, husbands, wives are unable This is their life and reality. Sudden death. to share, because they have no idea where their It was with joy that we were able to provide small child or loved one is. gifts to each of the thirty-five families represented This father knows only because a ‘friend’ saw an who are living in very difficult circumstances: no article in a country far away about a refugee that education, minimal health care if any and unable had died as he was carried across the border. The to work legally. They are truly a people without a father filled in the gaps. It was three months earlier ‘home’. There are plans to help in more sustainable that he had paid $8,000 to a ‘handler’ to get his ways. It is not an easy task and it comes with risk. two sons to a country where there was work and a We seek to obey our Lord. Join us. brighter hope for tomorrow. One son had made it and was working. The other son was lost. No one We are grateful for Partners Relief & Development (PRAD) and all the other organizations providing help, hope and love to knew where he was. The few details that could be people in Burma. gathered revealed there were many stops on the The Rohingya crisis in western Burma did not improve in 2015, with thousands of people desperately attempting to flee the country by boat, only to be turned away from their destinations. Their desperate situation gained international attention with headlines such as on Time Magazine International’s cover: “Asia’s Shame:The Plight of the Rohingya.” More than 140,000 people continue to be held in refugee camps. The International Organization for Migration(IOM) estimates that more than A Partners’ team member with a grieving 88,000 Rohingya fled by boat between man in Western Burma. (Photo: PRAD) January of 2014 and June of 2015.

13 A relief team medic extracts a tooth from a young patient in northern Shan State. BRINGING HEALING, TRAINING HEALERS “Medicine is more than a profession. Medicine has a soul, and its calling involves not only the application of knowledge and the exercise of skill but also facing a human situation. It is not an occupation for those to whom career is more precious than humanity or for those who value comfort and serenity above service to others. The doctor’s mission is prophetic.... The doctor is God’s partner in the struggle between life and death.” Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel At the Jungle School of Medicine-Kawthoolei (JSMK), patients come with their ailments and a new hope for help and healing. Aspiring medics learn diagnostics, treatment, community health issues - and they also learn the humility that is required every time they meet a new patient, a new person, unique and unknown to them whose total humanity must be learned and learned from.

From the top story: A picture of the mother and son Relief team medics treat patients at a field clinic in before they left the clinic. Photo by Dr. John Shaw Karen State. 14 Global Day of Prayer for Burma MORE THAN HEALTHCARE By: Dr. John Shaw, injuries. Within five weeks, he felt much better, and was Jungle School of Medicine-Kawthoolei up walking around the campus. He sent word to his wife to come get treatment too. She arrived, covered in When people come to JSMK’s clinic and hospital for her blankets, so that one of the staff called her a ‘Jungle help, the problems they bring are often shaped by the Angel’. She too began treatment, eating good food and troubles they live with. The father was carried in on a medicines, and we talked about finding ways to help hammock after trying to hang himself. His son had cut their family find rice for the coming year. We fed and him down in time to save his life, but the fall fractured helped their children too. But then she slipped back into his back. He was malnourished and deeply depressed. her curse of coldness. She ate less, and became fearful. Weeks later, his wife arrived, wrapped in felt blankets We spent time encouraging her, praying, giving her despite the mid-day sun, convinced that she was cursed medicines and trying to convince her to eat. One day, to live with perpetual cold. This was a family in trouble. after a time of conversations and prayers, she abruptly The trouble had started a year earlier when she gave decided to leave, and the next morning, she packed up birth to their youngest child, and broke a customary her family, and took them up the trail, back home. taboo by touching water too soon. The outcome of this In these nine weeks, we know that her husband made blunder was cold hands and feet. She lost her appetite a good recovery, and that she too gained weight, and and became withdrawn and despondent. Her husband emerged from the fear, at least for a while. We tried our also stopped eating and grew so weak that this year, best to love this family with everything we can offer: they were unable to plant rice. And so, facing a year medical expertise and treatment, love and prayers, food, ahead without rice, and five children to feed, he had even a crutch made from bamboo, foam, and duct tape. hung himself. After coming to JSMK we prayed for We hope and pray that she will find a way to be free him and treated his malnutrition, depression, and back from her curses. Free to live a better life. PLANNING FOR PREVENTION In spring of 2015, there was a small outbreak of the Lay Ton Ku clinic medics and in conjunction with cholera along the Thai-Burma border in the south. local government officials on both sides of the border, Handled quickly, it seemed to disappear. In Thailand, several local medical groups combined efforts to send where there is modern medical care, nothing more five emergency response teams to the hardest- hit was heard for several months. Then, in August, areas. reports came that it had again surfaced – this time The lessons learned are several: education is the further north. Patients began to come to Lay Ton Ku best prevention; it takes all groups working flexibly clinic, right on the border with Burma, and there were together to respond rapidly enough to make a reports of villages where up to two people a week difference; a difference can me made. were dying from something as common as diarrhea. In northern Karen State, JSMK recently began It seemed the outbreak had not been stopped, but had a program to address just this issue of preventable gone underground, into the remote villages of Burma, illnesses breaking out. Together with the Karen where there is little education and less access to Department of Health and Welfare and other local aid health care. There it had traveled silently north until groups, the Kawthoolei Vaccine Program launched, it reached more developed areas, where it was again with vaccinations in three separate villages near the identified as cholera. school. As of August 2015, medics had successfully To respond to an outbreak that seemed to be administered five different vaccines series to over 100 spreading so quickly and yet is so preventable children. Vaccines given include Hepatitis B, Measles- required a three-pronged response: correct diagnosis, Mumps-and-Rubella, Diptheria-Pertussis-Tetanus, quick treatment and a public education plan. Led by Oral Polio Vaccine and Inactivated Polio Vaccine. Pray for new medics, that they would be inspired with a clear and powerful vision of their vocation, and the opportunity to live it.

15 Good Life Club Report: Finding Freedom serve, and what did they have to offer in the face By: Karen Eubank & Hosannah Valentine of oppression and poverty? We saw an answer: we “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saw freedom in Shan rangers, raised in a militaristic saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. society and typically unemotional and regimented, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I stepping out of their cultural norms to dynamically have come that they may have life, and have it to the lead the GLC program with singing and dramas, in full.” (John 10: 9-10) Karen State and in Kachin and northern Shan State. They became examples of new life, joy and freedom This promise of abundance is also a promise of with new people – in Karen State; and in the middle freedom. This story of Jesus’ gives a picture of a sheep of complicated politics, in the opium-growing areas pen, full of terrified animals milling around in muck, where the people are at the mercy of multiple armed afraid of wolves and thieves. Then the good shepherd groups vying for control and also battling drug comes, opens the gate and leads his sheep out, to good addiction. pasture, to green grass and cool streams and fresh air We saw another glimmer of freedom in the opium and freedom. Out of the pen there are still wolves, hills of northern Shan State, where we met a Lisu man there are still thieves—it is not safe. But He is there who had not only grown opium with his family, as it and He has promised to be with us and lay down his was the most viable crop, but had become addicted life for our freedom. to drugs as well. He had heard a traveling evangelist What does this freedom look like in the middle of and changed his life, quitting all connection to drugs war? On the frontlines? What does it mean to farmers – even his family had stopped growing opium. They forced to grow opium? To young people born and invited us to a church service in which the prayers raised in a society at war? and singing were so enthusiastic they kept us warm The FBR Chaplain training deepened the lives of (in freezing weather) and drowned out any internal the rangers before the first program by pushing them voices advocating a return to growing opium to ‘pay to define for themselves what freedom looked like, for education’, or a new motorbike. Here, freedom in their own hearts and lives. What did it mean to was trusting God has wisdom to give in the most

Pray for freedom for children under attack and oppression: physical freedom, and also a spiritual freedom that opens the way into their future, redeemed of the wounds of their past.

Shan and Kachin GLC leaders leaping with Kachin IDP children at the end of a GLC program. (Photo: Chris Sinclair)

16 Global Day of Prayer for Burma Karen children learning about good health Yazidi children at GLC program on at a GLC program in Karen State. Sinjar Mountain. complicated situations. daily fight against this fear that threatened to take a We found freedom amidst the noise of bombing seat at the table God was preparing for them in the every night, in Mirke Village, northern Iraq. The presence of their enemies. And daily they fought it, Assyrian Christians here have not fled. Freedom is walking through their routines in faith that “surely, their choice to follow God in the face of generations goodness and mercy would follow them all the days of of religious oppression, and with joy. With the their lives.” palpable evil of ISIS just over the next ridge, they This faith was difficult to hold on Sinjar Mountain; were harvesting their wheat fields, leading their sheep here the people had lost nearly everything. If there and goats to graze, and letting their children ride were any miracles, they were harder to see. The bikes through the village to play in the schoolyard. town of Sinjar, at the base of the mountain, had been We stayed in their school for two weeks as it had captured by ISIS just ten months before. Thousands of been abandoned by the teacher months before. The Yazidi people were killed or captured and more died children gathered daily to play soccer and ride bikes. of thirst and exposure after they had fled. We met Teenagers became our facebook “friends” – and real them in dusty, wind-blown tent camps, still in sight friends too. Grandmothers brought us homemade of their homes and of the bombs daily dropped on yogurt and bread. Uncles discussed with us their ISIS that destroy their city, and close enough to hear politics and faith. Their freedom was a bright light the exchanges of fire between ISIS and the Kurdish against the black scorched earth and ISIS flag at the soldiers – many of whom are their fathers, brothers frontline. High on the mountain above the village, and husbands who have taken up arms to fight for the lights of the Syrian Coptic monastery shown every their homes. Here, and in many places like it, is our night, proclaiming defiance against a threat whose challenge – to not just be observers, beneficiaries, of most powerful weapon was fear. Freedom was their freedom, but bringers of it.

One way to help the Good Life Club is to put together children’s packs and mom-and-baby packs. These packs are then delivered to mothers and children by relief teams. SHIPPING INFORMATION MOM-AND-BABY PACKS CHILDREN’S PACKS Please send standard gift size boxes with • Small fingernail clippers • Small comb and mirror the description “household/personal goods, • 2 outfits for baby including • 2 children’s toothbrushes no commercial value” on customs form. cap, mittens, shirt (not a onesie) • 1 fingernail clipper Mark the package GLC and send via airmail and socks • 1 small toy to: • 1 teether • 1 picture of you Christians Concerned for Burma (CCB) • 1 picture of you • 1 postcard from your city or state PO Box 392, Mae Jo PO, • 1 postcard from your city or with a Bible verse Chiang Mai 50000, THAILAND state with a Bible verse USA: not to exceed 79 inches length/width/girth

17 am sorry. If given the chance, I will speak for a very long time.” BA (pronounced “Bee Ah”) smiles apologetically as he begins the The Story “Iinterview. Born as Jay Rammian Moya in the village of Kalay Myo in Chin State, he quickly gained the nickname “Ball” because of his round head. Ball was quickly shortened to “B” and an “A” was tagged on to the end. He has been going by the nickname ever of BA: since. BA was born into one of the poorest, least A ranger filled with developed and most politically complicated regions of Burma. Since there was no school in Kalay Myo, BA’s parents moved the family to Chaoun Kywat passion for God and Village so that he and his siblings could receive an education. BA’s father has long suffered from poor His people health, which prevented him from being able to do much work. The family lived on a farm and had a By: Amber Pleasant few cows, but money was always scarce. This didn’t prevent BA from getting opportunities to play and he grew up loving soccer. In 1989, at the age of 21, BA left home and began traveling around northern Burma, eventually settling in the jade-laden mountains of Hpakant Township in Kachin State. He became a truck driver on the jade transport routes, working in and around the lucrative jade mines for nearly 10 years. He also joined a local soccer team. One day while BA was playing soccer with his team, members of a Burma Army soccer team noticed his skill and recruited him to come play as a paid member of their team. At the time there was a full league of Burma Army soccer teams in the region. For one year, BA played on this team, becoming friends with his Burmese teammates. At the end of the year, his team lost their championship 18 Global Day of Prayer for Burma Far Left: BA shares the core principles of being a ranger to new rangers.

Near Left: A profile of BA taken during a relief training. game, so the battalion commander informed them attended his first training, and embraced the goal that they were going to be sent to the frontlines of of helping his people in this newfound manner. BA battles going on in Burma. BA did not want to fight has become a mentor for new rangers. Whenever he so he fled from the camp and resumed his work at a gets the chance to attend a training, he comes, both jade mine. to learn and to teach. You’ll find him in a classroom BA went on to try the timber business, and then or reading a book or article, striving to become a began exploring photography. He ended up going better Ranger, and help others grow in their abilities into business with one of his brothers, and the two along the way. still offer photography services to this day. When asked what his favorite part about FBR BA reflects back on his varied careers and flashes missions is, he won’t hesitate to tell you that he a smile again: “When I was a bachelor, we didn’t loves to share the Gospel with people. He loves put any thought into our career. However, all this God and wants others to experience the miraculous changed when I got married.” In 2006 BA married hope and joy that a relationship with God provides. his wife, and they soon had two sons. As he began This is a hope he’s shared in many ways, including focusing on his role as a father and husband, he also medical. Like all rangers, he’s received basic first began examining his role as a leader for his people. aid training but often encounters cases beyond his He began to be involved with different Chin skill, forcing him to rely on God. He tells a story of organizations that sought to serve and empower helping to save a baby with pneumonia. The baby, leaders in Chin State, as well as provide aid to less than a month old, was dying, with blue lips and marginalized communities in the region. He labored breathing. They gave them what minimal became a counselor for a non-government antibiotics they had on hand, and were able to organization (NGO) providing aid to people get the baby to a hospital in a nearby town. After recovering from sex trafficking, AIDS and drugs. pausing a moment, BA smiles as he says: “I am so He traveled around, providing training to villagers happy that this child is okay today.” so that they could in turn support those seeking to In a region - and a country - where people have overcome their traumatic experiences. long been divided by war and devoid of hope, BA However, BA began to notice that his time was seeks to reunite people and show them that God is consumed by his job and he started looking for all around them, and can provide hope and healing. something that was more flexible. It was then that He sees his FBR relief missions as one vital means he heard about Free Burma Rangers. In 2009 he for doing that.

Pray for rangers, like BA, who are working to provide relief and support to those affected by widespread floods and conflict. Pray for those who are struggling to find food and ways of providing for their families. Pray for the newest graduating class of rangers as they seek to apply their training in their home areas.

19 BREAKING FORTH LIKE THE DAWN In Burma, for many years, dictators have oppressed and From Monkey, Relief Team Pastor subjugated, attacked and destroyed. They have attempted to control everything. But there is one thing they can’t My name is Monkey. I am a Karen ethnic minority control- the spirit of the people. They cannot prevent the from Burma. We are in Kurdistan to assist the people from serving and helping each other. And so they Kurds in their struggle against ISIS. We are teaching have not won. Now those same people are taking this them the skills we have used in the struggle against spirit of service and love to other oppressed people across oppression in our country Burma. These skills include first aid and medical, GPS, and camera use; Good Life the world, bringing them help and hope in the middle of Club, a program encouraging and building up the the worst of circumstances. children; and collecting the stories of those who have suffered. “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: We met several people there who I will always to loose the chains of injustice remember. When ISIS invaded Sinjar, Neam, her and untie the cords of the yoke, children, and thousands more fled into the mountains. to set the oppressed free Because they were starving and dehydrating, her and break every yoke? brother and nephew tried to return to their home with a search party. ISIS captured and killed them. Some Is it not to share your food with the hungry families tried to flee the attacks in their cars. ISIS cut and to provide the poor wanderer with them off. We met another soldier. ISIS came into his shelter— house, stripped his one-year old daughter from his when you see the naked, to clothe them, wife’s arms, and took her away. They also took his and not to turn away from your own flesh and wife’s father. We prayed with him that she would be blood? returned; he needs a miracle. I have filmed many stories like this in Burma. But it Then your light will break forth like the is never easy. I have seen war in jungles, but not in the dawn, desert. When ISIS moves in a phone call is made and and your healing will quickly appear; the soldiers are saved by outside help. But for many then your righteousness will go before you, Kurds, outside help came too late. Today they seek and the glory of the Lord will be your rear help for the future. Burma or Kurdistan, we want to guard.” help people who are suffering injustice. We want to Isaiah 58:6-8 offer love and support to different races, and religions. Please pray for these, our friends.

Neam sits with one of her daughters as she shares her story with Monkey.

20 Global Day of Prayer for Burma From Ray Kaw, Relief Team Medic

I am Ray Kaw. I am a Karen medic and I have been water, lots of trees and bamboo so that we can build working with the Free Burma Rangers since 2006. I our own temporary houses, as we need. was one of three Karen team members who went with It was very painful for me when I saw all the the headquarters group on the mission to Sudan and children who can’t go to school. In my mind I secretly also to Kurdistan. I am really thankful to God that I pray a lot for them. I know our country still needs was able to go to Sudan and Iraq. Before I went to Iraq help but God has arranged for us to go to other places and Sudan I thought the bad war is only in Burma. to help as we can. I am always thinking about all of Now that I have been to Sudan and Iraq I saw the the people there; some of them became our very good people suffering there. friends. We were very happy to work together. Compared to back in Burma, the situation in these I would like to ask everyone to pray for them, that other countries is worse. When I look at the IDPs in they can get freedom soon. Pray for their enemies to the different areas, everything is very different. The see the truth and receive the love, and to have mercy IDPs in Burma, we have more food and plenty of in their heart. Above: Ray Kaw and Eliya treat a Kurdish soldier shot by ISIS. 21 Paul Bradley (at right) teaches at a relief team training while Doy Sah (left) interprets. Interpreters or Translators? By: Paul Bradley, know the author, know the material, and know their Chaplain, Free Burma Rangers audience. We see this truth played out in Luke 24 where we Working to share the love of God is often done find the disciples struggling to know what to do after across multiple ethnicities, cultures, and languages. Christ has been in the grave for three days. Two of Because of this we often find ourselves trying to them are walking along the road to Emmaus and the find someone who can speak the language of the risen Christ (hiding His identity) joins them as they people we are helping. This can be really tricky as discuss the past week’s events. The two clearly have we must trust that the one doing the translating/ not understood the significance of the crucifixion interpreting is actually getting the correct message and so the Bible tells us that “beginning with Moses and information across. So whom do we want doing and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the the job? An interpreter or a translator? And what is things written about himself in all the scriptures” the difference? (Luke 24:27). A translator might be better called a transliterator. The results of Jesus’ interpreter skills are evident Have you ever used Google Translate? If you have as the disciples exclaim, “Didn’t our hearts burn then you know that taking a base language and within us while he was speaking with us on the road, using an algorithm that simply replaces the words while he was explaining the scriptures to us?” Jesus into a target language falls extremely short in terms knew the Author (the Father), knew the Material of being accurate.The resulting sentences are often (the Gospel), and he knew his audience (He created disjointed and fail to communicate the heart or the them). true meaning of author. As believers God has called us all to be interpreters An interpreter, on the other hand, is able to take of His love to this world. The great thing is that you the words of the author, understand the meaning don’t necessarily have to speak another language to or heart, restructure the sentences, and then use do that. words that he knows will clearly and accurately Building relationships is the best start to becoming communicate to the listeners. an interpreter of God’s love; we can interpret it by The key ingredient I have found with all good providing practical help, standing with people to interpreters is relationship. The best interpreters offer hope, and sharing our lives in love. Pray for chaplains, pastors, spiritual leaders, that they would be given the vision and steadfastness to stay the straight course, even through the powerful winds of change.

22 Global Day of Prayer for Burma WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR? WHO ARE WE LIVING FOR? By: Hosannah Valentine these places. Our nightly news cycle has bludgeoned us with images I live abroad, far from my family, and my time spent of death and destruction. Nothing has been left to the with them is precious. I am sustained by memories: of an imagination – including good. What happens when we afternoon at the park with my brothers and sisters, goofily lose our ability to imagine good? kicking a tennis ball around in the light of a golden fall Hate. Graham Greene wrote: “Hate [is] just a failure afternoon, turning clownish somersaults and performing of imagination.” We feel it now, vaguely, this failure; we recklessly acrobatic acts of spontaneous joy, with much vaguely feel that something has been taken from us, we laughter. Of my four-year-old niece – she is very blonde vaguely feel ourselves on the brink of an abyss. There is a and asks me hard questions like, “Why do I not see you for present urgency to name what is happening, to name what a long time?” and easier ones like “Can I watch ‘Fwozen’ we are fighting: “war on terror;” “clash of civilizations.” again?” Or my two-year-old niece sprinting laps around Like a cornered boxer, we are hunkered down and have the bed, shouting with laughter when I catch her. These latched on to the enemy; it is the thing that fills our are perfect moments. horizon. But in becoming consumers of darkness, we are This is the stuff of life – the music that turns the prose of beginning ourselves to be consumed by it. And we are existence into a song of life. afraid. Remembering “chase and laugh” games with my niece How to free ourselves from the cycle of headlines, that leads to another memory, an evening when the light of feeds us body counts, timelines, in an endless repetitive the setting sun seemed almost palpable as it streamed stream? How to free ourselves from fear? By remembering across fields of wheat ripe for harvest. I had joined young what we are fighting for – the same things men and Aila and her mom for a walk and Aila began a game of women throughout time and the world over, have fought “sneaking” up behind me until I turned to tag her – then for: love, joy, beauty – the stuff of life. she would shout with laughter and run away. Her mom ISIS has successfully cast a shroud of fear far and wide laughed, and remonstrated. I laughed. We shared a perfect -but we need not be helpless. We can throw it off -by moment. I was in northern Iraq; Aila and her mom are adding to the beauty, adding to the joy, by responding with Assyrian Christians. ISIS was two km away, with only a love. We need not spend our imagination in imagining thin line of Kurdish soldiers between. And life was there, the worst. We can and must redeem it because we need singing its song. imagination to see the beauty of lives so far away. ISIS has left no doubt of their intent, destroying the lives In the very beginning of his Lord of the Rings trilogy, of thousands, committing the most wanton destruction J.R.R. Tolkien spends significant time describing the Shire, imaginable. And leaving none of it to the imagination, the beautiful homely home of the hobbits. He wanted us as they broadcast videos of their actions everywhere. to come to love it enough to understand, and feel in our They are helped by the nightly news cycle, and our minds guts, that it was worth risking everything for - because, are filled with images of rubble and bodies. This, we are eventually, that would be required. assured, is what life is like in Syria. In Iraq. In the Middle That may be what is required now. We believe in East. Thus, not only have people’s lives been destroyed, human rights, but we must also believe in human beings. in the minds of millions of people watching, the very The question is: do we have ears to hear the music of possibility of life is destroyed. That is, according to the lives like Aila’s, and her family’s and their neighbors? facts we are presented, life as we value it doesn’t exist in And then - do we love enough to risk everything?

Aila, near Mirke Village, Kurdistan, Northern Iraq. 23 Karen children receive GLC packs at a program in Karen State. Praying for Burma Thank you for reading the 2016 Day of Prayer and for partnering with the people of Burma in prayer. Please pray through this guided prayer for Burma: Praise God, we thank you for your faithfulness, for your love for the people of Burma and for the work that you are already doing there. We thank you that you are a God who loves the people in Burma and oppressed people everywhere. We give you praise that you are a God of love. Confession and Surrender Lord, we confess our own sins to you, we confess areas of our own lives where we have let oppression “For I know the plans I and fear take hold of us. We confess our own ignorance, and we thank you for your grace and have for you,” declares the forgiveness as we have to make decisions anyway. We surrender to you our agendas, ideas, and concepts and ask that you would guide us in praying for Burma. Lord, “plans to give you Scripture Praying hope and a future. Then Father, to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1), you will call on me and we thank you that you know exactly what season it is in Burma. You have a plan for good and not disaster, to give a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11). We thank you for the hope that you give us, come and pray to me, and I we thank you that your plans, even though we might not understand them, are for good. will listen to you.” Petition Jeremiah 29: 11-12 God you are faithful and just. We ask that you would provide health and healing where it’s needed in Burma. Physical healing to those who are suffering, and emotional and spiritual healing to those who have been oppressed and to those who have been oppressors. We pray for healing of the land, that crops would grow, that landslides, floods, and natural disasters would be held off, and that people would feel secure. Thanksgiving We thank you God for listening to our prayers, we thank you God for your love, for your strength to lean on, and that you give courage to those who need it. We thank you for those who work to help others in Burma, that you would bless them and protect them, guide them and provide for them. The Global Day of Prayer for Burma happens every year on the second Sunday of March. Please join us in praying for Burma! For more information, email [email protected].

Thanks to Acts Co. for its support and printing of this magazine. This magazine was produced by Christians Concerned for Burma (CCB). All text copyright CCB 2016. Design and layout by FBR Publications. All rights reserved. This magazine may be reproduced if proper credit is given to text and photos. All photos copyright Free Burma Rangers (FBR) unless otherwise noted. Scripture portions quoted are taken from the NIV unless otherwise noted.

Christians Concerned for Burma (CCB), PO Box 392, Chiang Mai, 50290, THAILAND www.prayforburma.org [email protected]